We are happy to announce the release of the recording of the seminar:
Who profits from academic content and why it matters
Speaker: Dr Janja Komljenovic
Chair: Professor Sian Bayne
Event held on: 13th February 2025
The seminar can now be streamed through Media Hopper Create: link.
Abstract
Academic content is increasingly treated by publishing and technology companies as assets with financial value. Much material produced by academics and students, such as monographs or journal articles, has been protected by copyright for decades. As such, it has an asset form, with value to be derived from licensing agreements for access to content. However, other parts of academic content have traditionally not been practised as an asset in the sense of managing licences and/or charging access fees. For example, although teaching material produced by academics was protected by copyright, often belonging to the university, it was traditionally left to the academics and their teaching practice. Publishers and education technology companies are now looking for new ways to profit from the assets they manage, including (1) institutions licensing access to online learning content via edtech platforms, (2) databases of academic assignments and manuscripts, and (3) renting out academic publications to Generative AI companies to train Large Language Models. The talk will discuss these three types of efforts to turn academic content into revenue-generating assets. It argues that licensing is a key mechanism through which students and staff hand over control over the content they produce. Individuals not only miss out on large (or most) economic benefits, but become subject to new governance from the assets that are created from their content.
The recordings of previous seminars can also be streamed through our Media Hopper Create channel: link to previous seminars.